Table for Three
by musique-du-soleil
Summary: And they were left with one chair painfully empty at their table for three.


New oneshot! It's based on a story from my 'Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul' book. It's really good, I've had it since fifth grade and it's helped a lot.

Sorry for not really updating anything! I'll get to it when I can! I'm only doing this because it's at the top of my very long list for the website.

Hope you enjoy!

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**Title**: Table for Three

**Summary**: And now we were left with one chair painfully empty at our table for three.

**Disclaimer**: If I owned it, I wouldn't be sitting here writing fanfiction.

Oh and I don't own McDonald's either.

Or the background.

_This means a flashback._

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_There will be a time when you think everything is finished. That will be the beginning._

~ Louis L'Amour

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Gabriella Montez awoke by the sounds of voices arguing not too far away in the garage. Rolling over, she squinted her eyes towards the alarm clock, seeing the bright red digital numbers that read 4:56 AM. As consciousness came back to her, she recognized the two familiar voices that belonged to her parents. Rolling her eyes, she remembered that this had become the norm for quite some time, but not usually at this hour: her waking up, to her parents screaming at each other, one of them often saying to the other to keep it down so Gabriella wouldn't hear, but she did. She tried to ignore the voices and coax herself back to sleep, but to no avail. On most nights, she'd heard a door slam and hear her mother's footsteps retreating back to her room, signaling an end in the conversation. On those nights, Gabriella wondered each time if her father would ever come back from walking out that door, but then she would see him sitting--uncomfortably--at the breakfast island as her mother prepared breakfast and greeted her with a forced smile.

She recalled a conversation she'd had with her father at a booth in McDonald's a week prior over fries. He'd shared a secret with her that would undoubtedly change her life forever.

_Gabriella returned back to the two-person booth she shared with her father, setting his box of fries in front of him, and taking a seat, already munching on her own. This had been around the third time her father had left after another huge blowup with her mother. He'd wanted to take her out and have a 'father-daughter' day with her, blaming work on why they hadn't been spending much time together. After a definite awkward silence between them, they both decided to speak up at the same time, then cut each other off instantly. Gabriella looked at her father with nervousness and said, "...You go."_

_Robert Montez sighed and looked at his daughter, but not before finishing his fries. He cleared his throat and nervously wrung his hands, something Gabriella had inherited from him; it was what she did when she was nervous too._

_"Gabriella, are you..._happy_, with the way things are at home?" Gabriella knew he was referring to the evident tension between her mother and father. It's not that she was particularly happy with the way things were at home, because who would be waking up to screaming voices and slammed doors in the dawn of the morning? _

_She shrugged in response. "I.. I don't know." She honestly didn't know. Of course she wasn't happy, but she didn't think her father would be stupid enough to not realize how much it was hurting her even if she didn't show it. He could have at least known that her and Maria's constant bickering was sure to take a toll on his already stressed daughter. Gabriella was quite familiar with divorce, having heard about it from a number of her friends. She knew that her family becoming a part of that group was inevitable, but she was frightened; hoping and praying that this too would pass, even though the voice in the back of her head told her that it wasn't. It was like hanging on to an iceberg. Robert rambled on to Gabriella as her thoughts went awry, thinking of the effects of a divorce: Who would she live with? Would she have to move--again? Was there going to be some kind of awkward weekend visitation with 'mother-daughter' or 'father-daughter' time? The possibilities were endless, along with the list of Gabriella's fears. After drowning him out for quite some time, Robert knew he'd lost his daughter's attention, so he decided to swallow the growing lump of uncertainty in his throat and just tell Gabriella what needed to be said at some point._

_Then, out of nowhere, Robert Montez told his daughter, Gabriella Montez, that he would be leaving her mother next week. Gabriella felt her throat grow it's own lump as her heart dropped to her feet and her eyes welled up with tears she fought so hard to hold back. As to offer up some type of compensation for the horrific truth of his scheduled leaving, he assured her that he'd unconditionally be there for her. Gabriella nodded her head subconsciously as if she really agreed with everything he'd said. He told her that they'd hadn't been happy for a long time, and that it had nothing to do with her; but all the while, Gabriella's head continued to run amok with thoughts sparked by her feelings of sadness, anger, and rage all combined into one. She was thinking, _If they both were unhappy, then why the big secret? Why isn't Mom here, too, sharing awful moment offering words of 'consolation'?

_Once they decided they'd sat in the booth for way too long, they both stood up to leave. He gave his daughter an awkward type of bear hug and she grew stiff to his touch. Scratching his nose, then his neck, another nervous tendency, he informed Gabriella that he wasn't 'ready' to tell Maria that he was leaving her just yet. With an unintended snort, Gabriella asked,_

_"Well when exactly _do _you plan on telling her?"  
_

_Robert closed his eyes, shrugged and sighed. "When the moment's right?"_

_Gabriella rolled her eyes and she wondered when the right time would be? After she'd left for school? While she was over at Taylor's, Sharpay's, or Troy's? At the breakfast island in the morning? At the dinner table? She shook her head, clearing her mind as they walked out of the doors of McDonald's, getting into Robert's car and heading back home to her unsuspecting mother._

For two weeks now, Gabriella had stared into the unknowing eyes of her mother, never revealing the 'secret'. She was betraying her, just like her father was. She tried to convince herself that the conversation at McDonald's never happened at all.

Now, on this early morning, Gabriella lied in her bed listening to her mother's muffled cries and the clicks of suitcases, she knew that the moment had finally arrived. He'd finally told her mother of his depart. Gabriella felt the blood rush to her ears and her stomach drop. Gabriella and her mother had not seen eye-to-eye on many things, like their constant moving, dating, boys, driving, school, and friends; but at this particular moment, Gabriella's stomach and heart were aching in sympathy for her mother. Her sobs and screams shot through Gabriella's heart like darts. She was experiencing the true effects of heartbreak, and the agony was so great, that now she understands what it's like.

She shuffled out of her bed and quietly tiptoed down her stairs, leading into her living room, through the kitchen, and finally to the garage door; where the endless commotion was coming from. She slowly opened the door wide enough to see and hear what was going on, but not enough to be noticed by her parents.

The scene makes her want to vomit. Maria is holding on to the bottom of Robert's jacket, howling as if in pain. She strains to hold him back, so that he'll stay. This is not the proud woman Gabriella knew of when she refused to accept her grandmother's financial help when Robert first lost his job. Her face is red, running with tears and her nose runs as she screams in resistance and disbelief. Her pride is gone; she is taking it with him.

He snatched his coat from her grasp as she collapses into a squat on the concrete pavement, pushing her hand back. The loving, caring man she saw as her father had taken on a new persona: ruthless and cold-hearted. Despite the problems in the marriage, she had never seen her father treat her mother with such disdain or look at her with disgust and fire in his eyes. He simply says it's over.

"... It's been over for a long time, a very long time, and we both know it."

Maria howls again and through her screams Gabriella hears her moaning, "No, no, no, no.." like some strange chant. Suddenly, all the noise stops. Her mother stops the screaming, and she sniffles lightly. Clearing her throat, she begins again, her tone changing to one of rage.

"You were just going to sneak out in the night, weren't you?! You're just a child," she spat, "you have no backbone, you fucking _coward_. I hate you, you _pig_!" She grips back onto his jacket, not letting go. He looks at her with disgust again and pulls away from her, his jacket coming off and that's all Maria was left holding. He kneels, tossing his packed suitcase into the open door of the backseat of the family car. Without a word, he closed the door, got into the driver's seat and backed out of the garage, then the driveway and out of Gabriella and Maria's lives forever.

Gabriella knew her father wouldn't be sitting at the breakfast island any longer.

All that was left was the painful echo of Maria's cries. Gabriella wasn't worried about the neighbors trying to be inconspicuous as they looked into the Montezes business. They were used to the war between Gabriella's parents; now, the war is over. They both gave up their dignity ages ago, and they don't know what the feeling of shame is like anymore.

Maria leaned against the garage wall in spasms of anguish and slowly building back up into hysterics, not letting his jacket go. It's all she had left of him. Gabriella thought of what she could have done to prevent this. Was it because she talked back to her mother while they 'enjoyed' a family dinner outing? She got so angry with Gabriella, and Robert would tell her not to lose her cool because Gabriella was right; but Maria's frozen, icy glare towards her--now, soon-to-be-ex husband--suggested that she wasn't particularly a fan of the friendly father-daughter alliance Gabriella and Robert seemed to have formed. The screaming and yelling between the two as an embarrassed and helpless Gabriella looked on caused the restaurant's guests and employees to stare, but Maria and Robert didn't care. The next thing Gabriella knew, Robert had stormed out of the restaurant and to the car before the manager had gotten to them.

That was the constant pattern. A knockdown, drag out fight followed by a heated Robert storming off to a remote corner, leaving a sorrowed Gabriella and equally heated Maria to bite the dust.

Maria turned towards Gabriella to talk to her as the restaurant's onlookers..well, kept looking on. With an equally icy glare she had given Robert, she spoke.

"Please don't destroy my marriage." Her eyes slightly softened before continuing, "I don't think I can live without him."

Gabriella felt sorry for her now and began to wonder if she was the cause of the wedge between her parents. Maria and Gabriella had always been rivals for Robert's affection, whether they chose to acknowledge it or not. Gabriella was Daddy's little girl, but now she was Daddy's little left behind. Maria described their relationship as black and white. Gabriella said up; Maria said down. Maria said left; Gabriella said right. It was clearly unstoppable.

She pulled the garage door to a silent click to close and went back upstairs to her room, cautious not to make a sound. Once back inside, she went to her windowsill, sat, and pressed her forehead against the cool glass, looking down directly to the driveway that pushed back onto their street. She was hoping he'd come back. She'd hoped this was all a bad dream and she was going to wake up soon.

Albeit, she knew this wouldn't happen. It was like hanging onto the tip of an iceberg.

Gabriella became lost when she felt a warm hand touch her shoulder. She turned to see her rival, her sparring partner, her opponent, maybe even her _enemy, _take Gabriella's head into her hands and turned it to her. Her crying had finally ceased, but she could still feel the wetness of them. No words were spoken between the two; they were unneeded. For once in their lives, they both felt the same thing. They were in agreement in their grief.

And then they were left with a chair painfully empty at their table for three.

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**Hope you liked it! It kinda hits home because I had to deal with my parents' divorce when I was nine and it took a huge toll on me. Review please!**


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